Association for Multimedia Communications

Join our mailing list

Did you know?

The e-Learning SIG is held on the second Wednesday of every month at the Harold Washington Library.

Discover the power of a link

We offer members a free listing in our Member Directory and a direct link to their home page. Become a member and get listed today!

e-Learning SIG

Third Annual Parade of E-Learning Vendors

Wednesday, April 9, 2003, 6:30-8:30 PM. Doors open at 6:30.

Where

Harold Washington Library, 400 South State Street, Chicago
Lower Level, please enter at Plymouth side entrance

Materials

- welcome.ppt

Thanks to the following exhibitors who took part in this year's event.

Accutel
Geoff Newman
630-792-0800 x22
gnewman@accutel.com
http://www.accutel.com
Accutel Conferencing Systems Inc, is one of the largest independent conferencing providers in North America. We deliver the most comprehensive and innovative audio and Internet conferencing services.

AHA! Interactive
Christina Salierno
312-922-9780
christinas@ahainteractive.com
http://www.ahainteractive.com
AHA! Interactive creates innovative tools to develop the best educators. The company also develops engaging effective learning solutions. Their mission is to be the catalyst for world-class education. AHA! helps organizations leverage technology to enable performance.

To address the needs of teachers and administrators, AHA! has developed AHA! Educator, a web-based solution that facilitates the planning and tracking of teachers' professional development participation and career planning.

To address the need for effective learning solutions, AHA! has several simulation frameworks that allow learners to acquire new skills by making choices in a dynamic system. AHA!'s frameworks allow for multiple scenarios (or scenes) in which the learner interacts with other characters, makes choices, and handles the outcome of their decisions. The learner is assessed through several different means including simulated peer feedback, coaching, and a score.

Applied Technology Consultants (ATC)
Robert Cichowski
847-726-2425
rcichow@aol.com
http://www.profitfromlearning.com/
Applied Technology Consultants, Inc. (ATC) has been helping Fortune 5000 companies improve their business performance since 1990. ATC is currently organized into two groups: Intranet U® Software Group; and the Custom Learning Group.

The Intranet U Software Group helps companies manage enterprise-wide learning through the development, marketing, installation and support of the Intranet U software product. The Intranet U Software Group also provides consulting services related to establishing, promoting and administering a corporate university.

The Custom Learning Group analyzes, organizes and publishes content in the form of instructor guides, sales training materials and user manuals for a wide variety of technology-based products and services. Custom Learning also designs computer-based training/web-based training and works with partner companies that author and program custom courseware.

Big Shoulders Digital Video Productions
Brad Fox
312-540-5400
bfox@bigshoulders.com
http://www.bigshoulders.com
Big Shoulders Digital Video Productions is a team of creative and talented people who work as one to complete any task. Our mission is:
- To obtain and master the very best video production equipment in the world.
- To apply our skills, talents and equipment to craft the projects our customers bring to us.
We will do so by understanding the project, its goal, budget and audience. We will apply our craft and world-class facilities to ensure not only a successful completion, but also exceedingly professional results. Our goal is to make everyone who walks in the door - from customers to employees to vendors - feel welcome and relaxed. You will enjoy your time.

Centrax
Jennifer Bystry
312-946-9360
jbystry@centrax.com
http://www.centrax.com
Centrax Corporation is a full-service e-lerning solutions company that produces custom interactive e-media for learning and promotion.

Centrax Corporation provides custom, end-to-end e-learning and e-marketing solutions that are second-to-none. Leveraging 18 years of experience and unparalleled expertise in animation, 3D visualization, and advanced programming techniques, we have created e-learning success stories for an impressive and growing roster of clients that include Fortune 500 corporations and leading, national associations. Whether you are seeking to train employees on new proprietary software or on a new sales process, Centrax’s experienced project teams work with you to develop cost-effective solutions that deliver sustainable results.

Computer Mediated Learning NOW!
Michael Kemmler
847-530-2399
mike@cmlnow.com

Impart Knowledge
Kari Bogdan
312-496-5669 x1004
kari.bogdan@impartknowledge.com
http://www.ImpartKnowledge.com
At Impart Knowledge, our customer mission is to create a sustainable competitive advantage for our clients by making knowledge a core competency in their organizations. We believe that knowledge, and its benefits to both people and companies, is truly the source of lasting and differentiable value.

We are a unique company in the marketplace for e-Learning. Our uniqueness is rooted in our target market focus, the depth of our product offerings and our approach to customers. Our target market focus is manufacturing, technical and industrial companies. We are an “e-Learning solutions” company. We view our clients from a holistic perspective.

Intermezzon
Agneta Rosenberg
773-528-1247
agneta.r@intermezzon.com
http://www.intermezzon.com
Some things just cannot be learned from books. You have to learn them by doing. The best way to develop proficiency in business, sales and negotiating skills is through personal experience. If you have the chance to practice these skills until they come naturally, you will instinctively know how to behave, even in tricky situations.

Intermezzon develops and sells interactive training programs that inspire a person's inborn desire to learn more. We re-create the realities of the business world in a simulator, enabling users to improve their proficiency until everything comes naturally. Intermezzon has given the old proven concept of "Practice makes perfect" an exciting new meaning.

Intermezzon's simulator-based learning enables you to practice your sales and business skills in a virtual world, full of settings and situations taken from everyday life. Interactive simulation has proved to be a highly effective learning technique. It can improve your ability to acquire and retain knowledge by up to 70 percent. And the more motivating and engaging the training program, the more you remember.

Knowledge Dynamics, Inc.
Mike Smialek
847-869-1595
mikes@knowledgedynamics.com
http://www.KnowledgeDynamics.com/
Knowledge Dynamics is a leading-edge developer, consultant, and tool provider for advanced training simulations, integrated performance support applications, and entertainment applications. Our suite of tools is based on open standards for Web-based and stand-alone delivery.

We offer the suite to development partners for the above uses and for adding intelligent interactions to customer-facing web sites.

Knowledge Dynamics was founded on the principles of employee ownership, lifelong learning, and the drive for fast, innovative software development. Knowledge Dynamics is based out of Evanston, IL.

OUR MISSION is to be the leading provider of intelligent enabling technology for enhancing the interactivity of learning and performance support solutions.

OUR VISION: a world where Knowledge Dynamics software products help all learners achieve their full potential and all workers perform at their peak every day.

Maximizing Performance
Dirk Tussing
708/557-1524
Dirk.Tussing@MaximizingPerformance.com
http://www.ebusinessbuilder.biz/
Maximizing Performance specialty is helping Global 2000 companies better take full advantage of their existing learning and development programs utilizing solutions from premier e-learning providers and tailoring organizational development/alignment methodologies.

We facilitate our clients strategic direction to focus their limited resources regarding:
- Retaining critical knowledge and skills;
- Improving human capital performance;
- Changing behaviors to better align enterprise-wide;
- Implementing and marketing large-scale e-learning initiatives.

Media Options
Brian Davis
773-832-0759
bdavis@mediaop.com
http://www.mediaop.com/
Media Options is a Solutions/Development Company. Our solutions are designed to accomplish specific goals. We “do” and don’t just “tell.” And we do with award-winning concepts and creative that seizes the audience and demands attention. Our development is in a range of formats, such as digital media, web, print and video. Our specialties include consumer and classroom education, training, business-to-business communications and issues management.

Our clients include Fortune 500s, associations and mid-size companies. In a world short on loyalty, we are proud of the number of long-term relationships we have developed with clients over our more than 20 years in the business.

Our programs speak to both long-term and short-term needs. But all are designed to last for years, meaningfully reaching millions of people, resulting in a marked change in behavior and attitude over time.

How can complex societal issues be understood by a child? How do you get the message across to your employees, your public? Just ask some of our clients. We have developed individualized solutions for each of them, although one constant prevails throughout all our work: From the shoestring budget to the blockbuster, we deliver great value to our clients.

Oncall Interactive
Michael Burke
312-226-1259 x1126
mburke@oncallinteractive.com
http://www.OncallInteractive.com/
Since 1992, Oncall Interactive has built a reputation for delivering inspired marketing and technology solutions. We tailor technology to produce that magnetic engagement to drive sales, fortify brands, and invite a second look. Our marketing and technology capabilities include interactive design, database, and application development for:
- Promotions and Sweepstakes
- Content Management and Publishing
- Website, CD-ROM, and Kiosk Development
- E-Commerce & Corporate Communications

Purple Monkey Studios
Kevin Spenger
708-386-3086
kev@purplemonkey.com
http://www.purplemonkey.com/
Design, Development, Production. At the start, the name was almost all they had. Russ and Steven set up shop in Russ' basement with no outside investors and just three clients. That's optimism. Today, Purple Monkey Studios is a thriving digital media development company with a staff of 40 talented, full-time employees, a broad range of successful clients, and dynamite space in a vintage Oak Park building. Guess all that optimism paid off.

Industries served include educational publishing, professional training, medical/healthcare, consumer industries, financial services, telecom, entertainment/media/advertising, government, restaurants, and scientific.

Siren Interactive
Carol Cohn
708-763-0763
carol@sireninteractive.com
http://www.SirenInteractive.com/
Siren Interactive helps to facilitate more effective communications through interactive applications that are in-depth and engaging, yet intuitive and flexible enough to reach your entire target audience. We take the time up-front to understand your business and your audience. We work with you to create the application that will achieve your business goals.

Clients include Baxter Healthcare, Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago, Hewitt Associates, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Portland Cement, Sprint, and Transamerica.

Socratic Arts
Mike McGarry
708-366-1690
mcgarry@socraticarts.com
http://www.SocraticArts.com/
Socratic Arts is a premier provider of learning services, including learning needs analysis, instructional design, and custom e-learning development. Our unique Story-Centered Curriculum approach offers true learning-by-doing with flexible onsite and online delivery options all at a fraction of typical development costs.

Led by e-learning visionary Roger Schank, our team of professionals has extensive experience delivering e-learning solutions to Fortune 500 companies, and the government and academic sectors. We can also tap into our academic partners to offer customized master's degree programs for your organization.

Tek TraxX Digital Production Studios
Stuart Gerstein
847-864-8729
stu@tektraxx.com
http://www.tektraxx.com/
Tek TraxX Digital Production Studios is an Interactive outlet available for Multimedia services of all kind. Since the year 1998, Tek TraxX has stayed on the edge with millennial technology and capabilities to stay current for everyone's needs. Our main goal is to provide the newest and most advanced ways of communication available, with the use of the best technology at our command.

By incorporating traditional methods and our own new techniques, Tek TraxX creates and develops system ideas to help businesses achieve their objective.

We look at our clients as friends, and we are capable to make them successful. We also know that being interactive is essential to being successful. The World Wide Web, CD-ROM, and DVD are all instrumental, and Tek TraxX is at the forefront to create various opportunities by using these tools as well as other means.

We will also provide a never-ending helping hand, for as long as you continue to stay in a business relationship with Tek TraxX, since we believe that proper assistance goes hand-in-hand with our capacity to keep your operation on the cutting edge. The interactive entities are out there, and Tek TraxX is capable of wielding them all to ensure you do not become obsolete in the communications aspect of what you are trying to build.

TransXpert
Robert Cichowski
847-726-2425
rcichow@aol.com
http://www.transxpert.com
TransXpert, Inc. is a leading Globalization Solutions company providing full-service, multi-lingual solutions for over 20 years. We offer services and solutions that leverage technology and processes to help you communicate effectively across all world languages and cultures.

TransXpert Services include – document language translation, interpretation, desktop publishing, editing and proof reading, multi-media audio and video productions

TransXpert Solutions include – globalized website development, custom e-learning solutions in multiple languages, Enterprise Content Management Systems implementation, software and website localization

Trifus
Kelly Hartman
312-373-7000
khartman@trifus.com
http://www.trifus.com/
Trifus® is an Integrated Learning Provider. We develop software applications and offer a selection of best-in-class e-Learning components and services to create functional, integrated e-Learning systems for our customers. What makes Trifus different from other e-Learning vendors is our ability to seamlessly integrate virtually any e-Learning products using our breakthrough Trifus Integration Framework™ (TIF) technology.

Trifus believes that software alone is not the answer to a successful e-Learning initiative. Instead, success comes from having a clear vision of an organization's current and future e-Learning needs. Trifus helps organizations formulate that long-term vision and then uses our software and extensive e-Learning experience to help customers achieve it. Because we are integration experts and have developed software tools to streamline the integration process, our customers can get individually tailored solutions in less time, for less money than with other e-Learning systems integrators.

Since our inception, Trifus has successfully delivered a wide range of products and services, from single applications for small organizations to complete enterprise e-Learning solutions for global corporations. At Trifus, the focus is on offering the proven products, services and technologies that ensure e-Learning systems function in accordance with customers' business goals. It's called delivering the promise of e-Learning.

Type A Multimedia Network
Jason Rothstein
312-274-9430
Jason@typea.net
http://www.typea.net
Type A serves those organizations and leaders who by mission or necessity seek to effect sweeping, lasting changes in culture and behavior. We offer a highly strategic blend of approaches that help you put technology to work on each assignment, custom-tailored to your audience, environment, and objectives.

Comprised of top technical and consulting talent, Type A specializes in custom e-learning that respects our clients' bottom-line needs as well as their more personal, forward-thinking hopes and goals. Our combined experience in marketing, training and technology enables us to satisfy a broad range of organizational objectives in every product.

Vergent Interactive
Gary Bersh
312-202-9224
gary@vergentinteractive.com
http://www.vergentInteractive.com/
Vergent Interactive develops cutting-edge corporate e-Learning for a diverse range of organizations in a vast array of industries. Vergent's highly interactive and modular solutions, customized to your specific learning needs, are comprehensive, open, and fully integrate into your existing training systems. Why is integration so critical? Because it saves money, and works seamlessly with your existing IT infrastructure.

Vergent's projects are custom built to suit your organization's needs. All content is created with off-the-shelf programming tools like Macromedia Director, Flash, Dreamweaver, Microsoft Active Server Pages, SQL Server, and Adobe FrameMaker. All courses can be launched and tracked using an AICC or SCORM compliant Learning Management System (LMS), which tracks individual performance with every completed program.

Each assignment is strategically developed to help your organization capitalize on its investment in training, while also delivering in-depth, relevant information to your employees or clients cost-efficiently. This is achieved by working in conjunction with your training team, in-house technical writers and Subject Matter Experts (SME's), to create Custom E-Learning, Templates or Engines that your staff can utilize. This translates into a product that satisfies your long-term training needs, giving your organization a competitive advantage, while increasing skills development and employee performance.

WExcel, Inc.
Mingde Hong
312-347-0955
mhong@wexcel.com
http://www.Wexcel.com/
WExcel is a Chicago based Internet software design company. We help our customers leverage technology and information to deliver better customer service, enhance loyalty, and reduce cost. Our specialties include web site design, content management, e-learning, database design, web application development, data and system integration.

Over the years, WExcel has delivered solutions to many leaders in the healthcare, financial, manufacturing industries as well as numerous professional associations. Increased sales, reduced costs, enhanced productivity, improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, and heightened competitiveness are some of the benefits sited by our customers.

Our mission is to help organizations leverage Intranet, Internet, application database, and networking technology to reduce their costs, improve their operating efficiency, increase their competitiveness, and support their revenue generating and marketing initiatives by providing state-of-the-art, custom development and consulting services.
WExcel means...We, you and us, will excel together.

Wisdom Tools
Lisa Schumacher
773-248-6246
lisa.schumacher@wisdomtools.com
http://www.WisdomTools.com/
When it comes to e-learning, our motto is: "learning first, 'e' second." Now, that doesn't mean we don't take the Internet seriously-far from it. It just means that for us, education is the end and 'e' is a means.

You see, our roots are firmly planted in education. So when the next tech revolution sweeps through town, we'll branch out, but we won't be uprooted. We'll still be, first and foremost, a learning company.

WisdomTools at a Glance
- Company spun out of Indiana University's Center for Excellence in Education in 1999.
- Founded by Dr. Martin Siegel, a pioneer in computer-based education; Research and Development Director of IU's Center for Excellence in Education; Microsoft's First Faculty Fellow; Director of Professional Services at Authorware (now Macromedia).
- Senior managers have designed and developed computer-based systems for over 25 years.
- Methodology is rooted in research and practice, and leverages proven instructional techniques in problem-based learning, case study, storytelling, role-playing, simulation, and collaborative learning.
- Clients, past and present, have included DDB Worldwide, Eli Lilly, Houghton Mifflin Publishing, IBM, and the US Army.